.One Month Under Our Belts.

I wrote here about starting our Total Money Makeover via Dave Ramsey last month. Little did we know that just after beginning the makeover and just after cutting up all of our credit cards and vowing to never go into ANY kind of debt again, God would ask us to step up our faith a notch farther. We learned a few days after starting this money journey that Jim's last day at camp would be January 31st, rather than this spring like we had originally been thinking. So that means Jim's last paycheck came last Wednesday. I have had moments of panic and wishful thinking regarding those silly plastic cards, but overall I am at complete peace. Thankfully because of starting the makeover last month, we were very frugal with our money for the whole month of January. We stuck with our budget plan for the month, and we were very faithful in allocating our money each week before spending it. It has worked beautifully for us. We even came under budget in a couple areas! So we start this month of February a little differently. According to Dave Ramsey's plan we should start snowballing debt this month, but we cannot do that with our current financial status. Rather we are just trying to survive the month! We sat down a few weeks ago and figured out if we could make it work to not get paychecks for February (Jim does not get voted on at our church until the last week in February), and while money will be very tight and stretched and we will need to figure out how to go without some things, we can do it! I am excited to see how God provides in a few areas, as we have already had a few expenses come up that we had not planned for - doesn't that always happen?

I just cannot get over the way God has been growing me since October when He made clear to us His desire for our family to leave the ministry at camp. I never could have imagined trying to go a month without any pay - that seems way too crazy, scary, unstable, etc. I am the person that likes everything planned to a fault. And God has taken all of my plans torn them to shreds and then asked me to trust His plan while wearing a blindfold! But here is where God has placed us, and I am surprisingly calm and dare I say - excited?! God is so good and so faithful. When we finally come out on the other side of our faith story I am going to be such a different person. God has been at work. Looking back over even these past few months, I can see that so much that has happened needed to happen to get me to this place. So with one month under us in this makeover, we step into month number two and we continue to pursue our Savior and stand in awe at His providential care!


My sweet family. I caught Jim snuggling with our children this morning before breakfast, and I just had to preserve the memory. Cadi and Jim still have sleepy eyes, and Scotty just looks completely perplexed. Sweet though.

I am kind of excited about mornings this month. I anticipate that they will be slow and easy as Jim will not be rushing to be at camp, and I will not be rushing to get his lunch together and such. I am planning to enjoy these moments. I think God is being especially gracious to us in giving us this family time before we jump into whatever ministry He has planned for us next. We are not taking this for granted at all.

Cadi is adjusting well to her glasses. She did not care for wearing her patch this morning, but I do hope she will get used to it. I am sleeping a bit better than I had been. I feel tired during the day, and I struggle to fall asleep at night still. However, once I do fall asleep I have been able to stay asleep, that is a huge blessing. Thank you dear readers for your kind and encouraging comments and emails. I am just blown away. I was chatting with a friend today and she remarked over the number of readers my blog has attracted. I am completely perplexed, but I have truly been blessed by the kindness of strangers. And honestly some of my faithful readers are feeling less and less like strangers and more like friends. The body of Christ is such a wonderful thing. I continue to write what is on my heart and to record these cherished moments for myself. I do not want to lose focus of my reason for blogging - to remember these fleeting moments of mommyhood, but having people enjoy or be encouraged by reading my ramblings is certainly the cherry on top. Thank you.

Edit: I just realized this was my hundredth post! How fun. {grin}

.Our Total Money Makeover.

Jim and I received Dave Ramsey's Total Money Makeover
for Christmas this year. We had heard a few friends talk highly of him, and we wanted to see what the talk was all about. After reading the book, we talked and decided that we would pursue this "total money makeover" in an effort to be completely free of debt. His concepts are simple, forthright, bold - logical. Don't borrow money. Ever. Don't spend more than you have. Live within your means. He then breaks everything down into baby steps.

The first step is to build up an emergency fund of $1000, or get it out of your bank. The money has to be liquid, but it shouldn't be so available that you are tempted to use/abuse it. We also had to sit down and write out a monthly budget (we had always tried to do a yearly budget - the monthly budget makes so much more sense!) and an allocated spending plan for this week. So basically, we will sit down every week and plan out - to the penny - how that week's paycheck will be spent before we ever receive it. We will also sit down once a month to work out the monthly budget. So far it has worked pretty well, although Jim had to put an extra $15 of gas in the van that we had not planned on. So we will need to do better with that next week. It is hard to know exactly how much gas he will need during any given week.It was nice to be able to complete step one.

(Oh, and can you guess where our budget and spending plan is located?? My visual homemaking journal! LOVE it!!)

The first part of the second step is to cut up all credit cards {gulp}. We completed that too. I knew this was the right thing, but this was scary for me. All of those what-ifs swirled in my head. What if the van breaks down? What if our heater breaks? What if, what if, what if? And we have even had family members question the wisdom of this. (According to Dave Ramsey, that means we are on the right track! {grin}) So we trust that God will honor our decision and take care of our needs. The next part of step two is to pay off all debt (besides the mortgage).

We are blessed to not have too much. We do have some credit card debt - foolish decisions, and mismanaged money accrued debt. We also just took out our very first loan for a vehicle this summer. After reading the book, I realize how very foolish this was! So we are now praying and discussing whether or not we should keep the van. That is the extent of our debt, excluding the mortgage. We are hoping to get it all paid off by this time next year, and much sooner if we decide to sell the van. Dave Ramsey calls his debt pay-off plan the "debt snowball". He gives specifics in his book as to how to put these into effect.

After step two you proceed to the next step which involves building up a big emergency fund, etc. I have read through all of the steps, but am most familiar with the ones we are working through right now. I am very excited to get our finances in a good spot. Dave Ramsey's ideas are not new and he admits that whole-heartedly. It's basic financial common-sense, but he presents a way to do it in such a practical, manageable way, that I am truly excited for the challenge.

Dave spoke in his book how after a family decides to do the makeover, they will be thrown some huge road blocks. This happened to us two days after committing our finances over to God and starting this makeover. Jim found out on Monday that his last day of camp would be January 31st, when he was hoping for something more like the end of April. (Let me be very clear, that we are not upset or bitter about this. It makes perfect financial sense for the camp.) Scary, as we have no idea exactly (we have maybe a hint) what God has in store for us next (more on that in future posts). So the pay checks stop coming the end of January, and only God knows exactly how we are going to be provided for. I am not going to lie. I freaked out for a few hours, cried, was terrified, tried to grab back those reigns of control that I spoke of in my previous post, thought about grabbing those cut up credit cards and piece them back together, and then a peace that passes all understanding flooded my heart and my soul. Why would I freak out or put my trust in a piece of plastic when the God of the Universe was still on His throne and none of this came as a surprise to Him?? And I can honestly say the fear is gone. I don't know what the next month holds or even this year, but God does. And so I am resting completely in the knowledge that He knows, and that I don't HAVE to!

So this is where our journey to financial freedom starts. I hope to post more about it as our journey continues.

This is also where are faith story continues - I gave you some brief details of how it came to a head in my post the other day. I look forward to unfolding more of our story in the days to come. I still don't know how it ends. Goodness, I don't even know the title to the next chapter, but I know it will be brilliantly written by the pen of the Author of our story, which is ultimately His story.